Dutch Water Defence Lines

 I had never heard of the Dutch Water Defence Lines until I picked up a brochure a couple of days ago. But, it's totally amazing and I have been obsessed with it ever since.

It's a UNESCO World Heritage site and is 200 kilometres long, one to five kilometres wide with 96 forts, six fortified towns and two castles!!

We found ourselves at the bottom of it whilst in Leerdam, and we cycled 43 kilometres along it to Utrecht.

What is it? I hear you shouting and why is it so enormous?

Basically, between 1815 and 1940 the Dutch built a system of forts and waterworks, which countless sluices, dykes and earth mounds. The idea was to keep enemies at bay, particularly around Amsterdam, by opening the sluices and quickly flooding the whole, or sections of the blue area on the map.

Our route today was from Leerdam that is right at the bottom of the map and up to Utrecht. From there we would take a short train ride to our destination of Amersfoort.

We set off from Leerdam and soon reached a raft to take us across the water.

The raft has a wire attached to the other bank and you pull yourself across. Of course at first I pushed instead of pulled so just stayed where I was.

Then we went back up onto the raised roads and paths that stretch for miles and they, if necessary, hold the waters back.

Our next stop was the Doorgezaagde Bunker known as bunker number 599. It was built, along with hundreds of others in 1940.

Made of reinforced concrete this Bunker was sawn through with a diamond drill to show the inside workings. It took four weeks of drilling and a pathway now leads down to the water.

Posts out in the water show how high the water would have risen if the area was flooded.

It's been taken over by the birds now though so not very pleasant to walk along.

Back on the bike we made it to Fort Everdingen. There is very little to see of the forts above ground and that was done purposely so that potential Invaders would not be aware of this fantastic defense system.

We went down a little track and found the fort.

There was also a more modern building and the lights were on. Excited about the prospect of getting a coffee we went inside to find ourselves in a brewery and a bar. Even more excited we fancied a beer, but the owner said that they didn't open until Thursday so we were out of luck.

Back on the road, and on to another ferry.

Most of the forts have been repurposed as cafés, and we then found a nice looking quiet one with people sitting on benches outside drinking. I headed towards the door to get our drinks but no such luck. This fort was actually an office and the people were office workers on their lunch break.

They were very nice though, and also wished that their office was a bar.

Cycling along we did eventually find a fort that was a café and sat outside in the sunshine eating, or is it drinking, affogatos. (Never had one before.)

Unfortunately we stayed too long and we reached Utrecht just as a storm was arriving.

We whizzed through, just stopping long enough to snap a photo or two. We were heading for Utrecht North station and as we passed Utrecht Central station it started to pour with rain.

We could have caught the train from the centre but we had already bought our tickets online so we got soaked on the last part of the journey.

Onto our train and to the surprisingly beautiful town of Amersfoort.

Leerdam

We are spending the day at Leerdam, a pretty and quite sleepy little town in Holland.

It is also the glass blowing centre of Holland and it has a demonstration building and the National Glass Museum.

We went to the demonstration first and it was very popular, but we managed to grab a couple of seats near the back. We watched the proceedings while a guide explained the process in great detail in Dutch.

After about half an hour he suddenly said 'if you have any questions please ask'.

Surprised and pleased that he had spoken in English, I had loads of questions as we hadn't understood a thing. 

I decided that I would just keep it quick and simple. 'What is it?' He looked at me in amazement, and then said that he didn't have a clue. I just call them objects, he said, but perhaps it's just a vase.

So there we are, but it wouldn't stand up well on such a narrow base and you wouldn't get many flowers in the hole in the top.

Outside in the garden were some glass sculptures and I would have loved to take this large one home.

Or perhaps this one would be easier to carry on the bike.

After lunch we made it to the Glass Museum although we weren't overwhelmed by it.

However, it had a garden that was full of greenhouses with exhibits inside them. Our first prize went to the one full of dead chickens, or possibly ducks, that were hanging from a string.

It's given me a few ideas for my own greenhouse as it does look a bit boring in the wintertime.

Breda to Leerdam

 We had a final look around Breda.

 This church wins the Best Windows award.

Then we got on our trusty Bromptons to retrace our steps from yesterday's run. This was to see the beautiful Langoed Bouvigne, that we completely missed on the run. I didn't even have the excuse of being tired because it was quite near to the start.

Then a quick sprint up the station steps to catch the fast train to Den Bosch, also for some reason known as 's-Hertogenbosch. This cut our distance down a bit, but also gave us some good things to see along the way.

Starting with Bolwoningem. This is a totally unbelievable housing estate in the suburbs of Den Bosch. These buildings are tiny houses built for single people or couples with no children, and are rented from the council.

They were designed by an architect who believed that round houses were the best shape to live in, and they date from 1984. There is a spiral staircase in the base, then a living room, a half landing with a bathroom, and finally a bedroom. Honestly, I am not making this up.

Then we cycled across lovely countryside on the top of banks that I assume can hold back water if necessary. 

It gave us great views of the countryside, but the day was very windy and we mostly seemed to be riding straight into it.

Another stop for the Kasteel Ammersoyen, a brilliant building with a good moat.

Onwards, and back into the wind, stopping briefly at a concrete tractor.

Then another exciting nature stop. I had seen one of my favourite birds in the fields along the way, and then Daz spied a nest in one of the villages. 

Storks! Fantastic massive birds, and my all time favourites, along with flamingos, if course.

The weather looked as if it was turning against us and huge black clouds followed us, but we raced along in the headwind, and got to the ferry just as it was docking. £2.50 well spent to get across the water.

It was only a five minute journey, but on this side the roads were soaking wet and full of puddles.

We were closing in on Leerdam and we arrived and got to our hotel room about five minutes before the rain.

Sporty couple of days

 Yesterday we ran the incredible Oude Warande parkrun. It's held in the middle of a forest and is in the shape of a windmill.

It was an excellent course and it shouldn't have been possible to go wrong. However, I was running with no one close to me either in front or behind and I ran in a straight line and almost into a lake.

I didn't notice the sign a few metres back showing a wiggle on a path around it, and instead I stopped right at the lake's edge, then saw a tiny path right next to the lake and followed that, pushing brambles out of the way.

I was soon back on the route and finished 34th out of 64 so it hadn't slowed me down much, it was just a surprise. Daz finished 20th and never even saw the lake. He also thinks that I should do it again as my effort shouldn't count.

Then we cycled to Breda which was about 30 kilometres away. It's a pretty place with many bars and restaurants, although it's not looking it's best as it's raining.

This morning we set off for a ten mile jog in the drizzle around Breda and it's surrounding forests. I Jeffed it and Darren had a lovely time running ahead and taking lots of photos.

Day in Tilburg

We were due an easy today and the weather looked dodgy, so after a late breakfast we went out to explore Tilburg.

Right outside our hotel is the town square with a lovely old church and the entrance to the underground bike park. This is a bigger version of yesterday's travelater, and people just stand on it with their bike and are teleported to the bike parking area.

We took a walk around town casually enjoying the sights.

Then we crossed over a big canal and into a grassy area on the far side. For many years it was the sewage treatment plant, but not any more, although it did smell a tiny bit wiffy.

At the far side of it were the recently discovered remains of a 13th century manor house, but instead of trying to rebuild it, they have created the estimated outline in corten.

Finally, and back in the town we passed an absolutely massive chimney  from the Beka wool factory. It closed in 1968 and is now surrounded by quite nice looking flats.

Whilst trying to find out more about the Beka factory read in Wikipedia that the employees, and also local people, used to be known as pee pottiers or more crudely jug pissers. This is because they used to take their own urine to work in jugs and were paid a few cents for it. The ammonia was somehow used in the wool processing area. 

I think that fact will stay with me for a while, possibly even after I forget the name of the town.